Updated Corrigenda, March

Religions of the Book The 22nd annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing (SHARP) will be held in Antwerp (Belgium), Wednesday 17 September through Sunday 21 September 2014.

"The [15-volume] Encyclopedia of Religion...belongs in [the] category of the mega-encyclopedia, which stands at the pinnacle of complexity and comprehensiveness....For whom is this vast collection of erudition intended? From the Introduction to the first edition we learn that its developers had in mind both general readers and specialists within religious studies. The King’s College reviewers repeatedly alluded to the possibility of sending students to it, although not to all entries “without warning,"...suggesting that teachers should be familiar with it if for no other reason. Johnston underscores its intrinsic value for scholars who, in postmodern fashion, must become well acquainted with areas of scholarship beyond their own expertise. Toward this end, the bibliographies that conclude each entry will be of particular value, especially in those cases where they take the form of bibliographic essays rather than sheer lists of references. But Johnston recommends reference works of this type for casual grazing as well, and for this purpose the pastures offered by the ER are luxuriant and nourishing indeed, an irreplaceable resource for self-teaching. It is surely a work with which all scholars of religion should be well acquainted even if it is not on their own shelves."

Judaism is a vibrant contemporary religion whose traditions and practices are rooted in antiquity and developed across the globe. This course is an introduction to Judaism as a diverse textual tradition and lived religion, with a focus on beliefs, ethics, and rituals. It begins in the present with a global perspective on Jewish communities, their identities and history. It then examines the different ways these communities have read and applied Jewish scripture-the Written and Oral Torah-with a focus on both narratives and norms. It explores the relations among law, philosophy, and mysticism as well as among religion, ethics, and political power. Judaism is understood in its cultural variety and religious plurality.

SLAM Newsletter #3, March 2020, pp. 4-6.

The first 2020 Studies in Religion seminar was delivered by Iain Gardner in the Rogers Room on 3 March. It was followed by a reception to celebrate his new book The Founder of Manichaeism: Rethinking the Life of Mani (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

Religion, Brain & Behavior, 2017

Alan Brill's blog "The Book of Doctrines and Opinions" on "Faith in the Plural", 2019

With classes finished for the semester, I need to catch up on my reading. On my table are several recent books, all of them of the last four years, explaining the recent turn to interreligious studies. The current trend is to replace the word interfaith with interreligious since the term faith is a Protestant understanding of religion. And to place greater emphasis on the prefix "inter" to show that we are interconnected, with interreligious moments all around us. Diversity is continuous factor in our lives playing a role even in law, politics media, athletics, and education. Another part of this trend is to replace the survey of world religions class with a class on interreligious moments in our lives. Students learn more about Judaism by discussing why Satmar representatives went to an open casket memorial in a funeral home but won't go to a church funeral than studying random snippets of Genesis and Leviticus compared to the Vedas and Koran. A recent Jewish book to deal with this new interreligious moment is Prof Ephraim Meir's Faith in the Plural (Idra Press, 2019), which is brand new

The Heythrop Journal, 2007

Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 2012